Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel has criticized the United States for using secret overseas detention centers to interrogate terror suspects.

Speaking in Berlin Saturday, the chancellor said the prisons are not compatible with the rule of law. She said the challenge is to defeat terrorism without compromising fundamental values.

However, Ms. Merkel praised President Bush for giving details about the prisons, which had been revealed earlier by an American newspaper The Washington Post.

In a televised address last Wednesday, President Bush said interrogations of terror suspects at the secret CIA prisons had produced important information that helped scuttle future attacks on the U.S. He said 14 so-called "high-value" detainees at the prisons have been transferred to the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay and will face trial.

European Union officials have demanded that the locations of the CIA centers be made public.